Spy Party Passports

It completely slipped my mind to do a tutorial on the passports for the Spy Party until someone asked. Sorry!

I took my own passport and opened it and scanned the cover. I placed the scan into a document and copied and pasted so I had two on a sheet to save paper when it came to printing. I made them slightly smaller than a real passport size.

Then I flipped over my passport and scanned the inside page with the picture and details.

I opened the scan in Photoshop.

I made a new layer and then proceeded to draw boxes over the stuff that needed to be erased or changed. So, I boxed out my photo and name, birthdate, etc. I just messed around until I found a color that faded into the background and it was different for most of the boxes since the background gradates. 

Then I saved this as my template. For each person, I created a new identity. I just made up names that were somehow based on something related to spying, like Hunt or Trace and for their first names I picked names of British origin that started with the first letter of their real names. So Gabe became Greyson Hunt. Why? I don't know. Just some rule to follow for consistency. 

I made up birth dates and places. I also changed the coding on the bottom of the passport. It has numbers like your passport number and birthdate embedded in it, and I replaced it mostly with my new made up numbers, but I also just filled in with random numbers.

I printed each identity, no photo, and I also printed some pages with stamps (you can find clip art for free on the internet that looks like passport stamps.) I placed everything into document pages so that I could have doubles printed per page like with the cover.(First, double check that all your dimensions are the same.)

I cut them down to size and stapled each passport together.

On a separate file, I made a box that was the same size as the box for the photo on the passport. This way I could quickly drag the photos to resize them when the time came. You could just change the dimensions a menu if you preferred.

Then when the guests arrived, I had them stand against a blank wall and snapped a picture of them. Once I had them all, Matt started spy training, and I uploaded the photos, used my box to quickly resize them, and printed the pictures to photo paper. I left it like above so I could just cut right on the line.

I cut them out and used a glue stick to attach them to their passports. Once spy training was done, each guest received his or her new identity for the mission.

The kids were all very excited that they were allowed to take home their passports.         

Da Bomb Cake

So, I actually kind of forgot about the cake tutorial, so sorry if any of you have been waiting for it!

This was the cake for the Spy Birthday Party.

I have this bread baker's bowl. It was a gift and it's from the Ozarks, so I don't know how common they are. 

I also have a cake batter bowl from Pampered Chef that can go in the oven, so I know y'all are smart and can figure out something similar to use.

I fixed up my chocolate cake mix (yes, I used a box mix). Oh, if you want to flour your bowl but not have it white, save a little mix to the side when you stir it up. Grease the bowl, and use the saved mix to flour it. No white when it's done.

Unless you have two that are the same size, it will take awhile to bake because you have to bake half of it first and then the other half. Also, it took forever to bake. Don't panic, just give it time.

Once you have have your two halves baked, it's assembly time. My bread bowl made the halves mostly round, but they had a small flat disc on the bottoms. This is will be both good and bad. They also puffed a bit on the wide sides as cakes do. 

I started by trimming this part off with a serrated knife so that they were flat surfaces. Save this cake.

I took a small smear of my chocolate frosting (from a jar. This surprises you?) and placed that on the center of my cake stand. Then I put my first half down. The frosting will hold it in place.

Frost the center like a regular cake, and then invert the top half onto the cake so that it makes a round ball shape. However, you still have that flat bit on the top now. It was a helpful place for the cake to stand on the bottom, but here on the top it just throws off the look.

But, your scraps should be somewhat rounded having been the puffed up part, so carefully cut some of the scrap and frost and place it on the cake until you are rounded.

Now you need the little "spout" bit that the wick comes out of. I just cut a circle out the the scraps and placed that on top of the cake, frosting in place.

Now, just frost the whole thing.

So, it was frosted, but not smooth. I filled a small bowl with hot water and I dipped my knife in the water, then without much pressure, smoothed over my frosting.

Some frosting came off on my knife, but I just scraped it off on the bowl when I dipped again. Basically this will melt the frosting just a bit which helps you smooth it and turns it a little glossy.

The last touch was a curly candle so it looked like a wick. I found them in the baker's aisle at the grocery store.

Just remember when you slice it, that it is tall instead of wide! You will want to cut narrow slices. 

This post may be linked at the following parties (for their Blog Buttons see my Link Love page): (M) C.R.A.F.T., Amaze Me Monday, Sumo's Sweet Stuff,  (T) A Little Birdie Told Me  Stories of A to Z, The Blackberry Vine, How To's Day , Type A, Amaze Me August, , Show Me What Ya Got,  (W) Wow Me,  Blue Cricket Design, What I Whipped Up, Wicked Awesome Wednesday, Sweet Peas & Bumblebees (TH) The ArtsyGirl Connection,  Creative Juice, Thrifty 101 , Smilemonsters , Everything But the Kitchen Sink, Shabby Chic Cottage, Thrifty Thursdays, House of Hepworth's,  (F) Fingerprints on the Fridge, Furniture Feature Friday,  Lovely Crafty Weekend , Remodelaholic, For the Kids Fridays, , Craft Goodies, (Sat) Tatertots and Jello , Anything Goes , Funky Junk Interiors (Sun) Creative Blog & Hop, Sundae Scoop, Under the Table and Dreaming

Mission: Spy Party

 Gabe turned eight last week, so we had a party. You may know from the past we always invited his whole class, and that is a lot of people. This year we made him chose just a few friends to invite, and that made it easier to have an elaborate mission for them.

But first, invitations. I took manila folders and cut them in half, then I trimmed the open edges to make it folder-like proportions again and just used scissors to cut the tabs that manila folders normally have.

The glue stick is there for scale.

I used the computer to type a little message with party details, inviting the kids to be special agents and come to spy training. I did glue the top of the paper into the mini folder just so it wouldn't get lost, but I added a paper clip because that seemed more office memo-ish.

I printed TOP SECRET from the computer and cut and glued them to the outside. And that was all that was.

When the kids arrived, I snapped a picture of them, a head shot, if you will. These were to go into their passports with their aliases. I made up the passports ahead of time and just had to print the pictures and glue them in while Matt began to train them.

I'll give a tutorial on passports in another post (or this one will be ridiculously long because this one is already ridiculously long). [Update: passport tutorial here.]

Training included code-breaking. They practiced Morse code and learned about invisible ink. We used baking soda-water, which is base on the pH scale, to make messages. Once dry, they used acid either in the form of grape juice or vinegar to reveal the message. We also showed them some other codes they needed to complete the upcoming mission.

We had a "laser" maze made with string and duct tape. Part of training was to practice going through, and this was probably the part that had them most excited. They all loved it.

We also had them do target practice with water guns. This was also exciting, but honestly, go with the laser maze if you have to pick one. It was by far the highlight.

Then they got a message. They were needed for a top secret mission. Former KGB agent Boris Prosorov had stolen nuclear material and was threatening to destroy a city if the UN did not pay him eight billion dollars! Gasp!
[Not that they know what the KGB is, but we went with something "old-school" and not realistic for today's world on purpose.]

We filmed a congratulatory message for the end of the mission. They will run back to back if you watch the video (complete with outtakes.)

Here's how we did the mission:

They had to get to Switzerland, so they grabbed their passports and guns and ran out our side door where Matt loaded them into the "plane" which was just our car with all the seats folded down so it was more like a cargo plane. He got in and put on a "pilot's hat" and rolled them down the driveway (at like 2 mph). Ta-da! They had "flown" to Switzerland. I was waiting to stamp their passports and give them a clue as to where to start.

They ran to the side of the house and read a message telling them they had to shoot down all of the clues from behind the line (it was a mine field that would only deactivate once all the clues had been released).

Attached to each streamer was a letter. All the vowels: A, E, I, O, U, and (sometimes) Y. Each letter was a color of the rainbow. There was also the addition of a Morse code message. The vowels were clues they had to save that would become clear later. The Morse code message led them to the next clue. They had to shoot their water guns at the streamers. We weighted the letters a bit, so that when the streamer got wet, it would break and drop the letter.

The next location was our mailbox. Inside they found a PVC pipe with what looked like a ribbon of gibberish letters. But when they wrapped the the ribbon around the pipe the letters lined up to make a message which read:
Red is a warning.
Green makes up hop.
Snow does nothing.
And tar makes us stop.
This clue told them what the different "bomb" wires did, so to "diffuse" the "bomb" they had to cut the black. (Red made a buzzer, green sped up the clock and white did nothing.)

To get directions on where to go next, they got a call from Headquarters. (I changed my phone so that calls from home said "Headquarters") This sent them to Geneva, and we had a sign on our fence that said Geneva (Clever, huh?). 

At the fence, I quizzed them on their passports, something easy like their alias's last name or birthplace. I told them, "I hear the Russian cafe is delicious."

So they ran to the deck which was set up with a table and chairs. Matt came out of the house with an apron on and presented them with a menu. The menu had an invisible ink message hidden, and so they had to order the grape juice to reveal the message.

The message said, "Time falls like sand. Connect the dots." They could see bocce balls sitting in the sandbox. They were numbered, so they had to use the rope to play connect the dots, and at the point of the arrow, they dug to find a box with a clue and wire cutters. (This was taken directly from Ruff Ruffman, so Gabe knew it as soon as he saw it.)

The clue was missing it's vowels, and those spaces were replaced with colored boxes. They figured out the rainbow colored vowels they received before were the key, so they began to fill in the box. 

It was message from Boris taunting them about understanding the clues about how to diffuse the bomb. 

It's really just a  simple electrical circuit that Matt made look messy.

And there was an address in french. A little jaunt over to the laptop to type it into Google Translator and they knew that they had to go to the Alley beside the Garage.

But, gasp! They still had to get through a laser maze to reach the bomb which was hooked up to the nuclear material (green jello).

So they followed the clues from the pipe code to figure out that they needed to cut the black wire.

It was hilarious how stressed they were watching the lights count down. Clearly they were in to the make-believe. After they successfully diffused the bomb, they got the congratulatory message from the DVD and they "flew" back to headquarters.

Matt had taken away the training supplies and set the table for cake and ice cream during the mission. The cake was a old-school round bomb with a curly candle for the wick.

We also set out Twizzlers since they kind of look like wicks and M&Ms just for fun color. And that was all we did for food. Our party was late afternoon so I figured we were already spoiling their dinners; we did not need to push it. :)

I'll give you a cake tutorial in another post as well, but I can tell you it was sooo simple. [Update: cake tutorial here.]

It was a really fun day. They were thrilled that I sent them home with their water guns and passports. Were we doing this again, we'd simplify it a bit or plan for a three hour party instead of two. We came down to the wire with the timing. 

This post may be linked at the following parties (for their Blog Buttons see my Link Love page): (M) C.R.A.F.T., Amaze Me Monday, Sumo's Sweet Stuff,  (T) A Little Birdie Told Me  Stories of A to Z, The Blackberry Vine, How To's Day , Type A, Amaze Me August, , Show Me What Ya Got,  (W) Wow Me,  Blue Cricket Design, What I Whipped Up, Wicked Awesome Wednesday, Sweet Peas & Bumblebees (TH) The ArtsyGirl Connection,  Creative Juice, Thrifty 101 , Smilemonsters , Everything But the Kitchen Sink, Shabby Chic Cottage, Thrifty Thursdays, House of Hepworth's,  (F) Fingerprints on the Fridge, Furniture Feature Friday,  Lovely Crafty Weekend , Remodelaholic, For the Kids Fridays, , Craft Goodies, (Sat) Tatertots and Jello , Anything Goes , Funky Junk Interiors (Sun) Creative Blog & Hop, Sundae Scoop, Under the Table and Dreaming